


Amanda, articulate

by blcwriter



Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: F/M, Originally Posted on LiveJournal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-03
Updated: 2015-07-03
Packaged: 2018-04-06 17:25:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,281
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4230510
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blcwriter/pseuds/blcwriter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>  For the prompt, "Amanda, articulate," at <a href="http://community.livejournal.com/where_no_woman/4121.html">Where No Woman Has Drabbled Before</a>.  Because Spock's Mom rocks, and you know it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Amanda, articulate

  
The other High Councillors and their wives disapprove of Amanda.  Of course, they'd deny that they do if she said anything (which she wouldn't) because not only is disapproval an emotion, it's rude, and if there's one thing the Vulcans pride themselves more on than their claimed emotional neutrality, it's manners.  (She also doesn't remind them that pride is an emotion.)  But she can tell they disapprove anyway.  It's in the strained tones of voice, the half-second's hard looks when she smiles or laughs or engages in any natural human expression, the stiff(er than usual) body postures even as they mouth polite greetings and say everything proper, make all due inquiries, do all that is right and expected-- but not a whit more.  (Vulcans are many things, but possessed of a strong sense of irony they are not.  It amuses Amanda when she's not feeling so lonely.)

She tolerates their lack of regard-- complaining to Sarek changes nothing, and though she is lonely when she is on Vulcan, she chose this life and came here to be with her husband, nobody else.  They travel enough around the Federation and to Earth that she has the chance to find and make friends with others (human and non-) more tolerant of mere human friendliness and curiosity, and those friendships sustain her when she is on Vulcan.  Her friends (Sarek might call them acquaintances, but they're his friends as well) visit them on Vulcan as able and their comms light up with messages of family and business and cheer.  It's enough, and when Spock is born, Amanda has what she needs to please herself and to allow her to almost completely disregard the years' long disapproval of her husband's high colleagues.  (She still sometimes bites her tongue on the ways in which she could make the ironies of it all so apparent and cause cheeks to flush green with shame at their rudeness-- but she keeps quiet, because pointing out how rude people are smacks of rudeness.  It's a circular, emotionally repressed, and very Vulcan conundrum.)

In the end it's their disapproval of Spock that makes her speak up.  He's so determined to do things the Vulcan way, be Vulcan, make the small heart inside his strong body conform to societal dictates, and she lets him because if she's learned nothing else in all her years, it's that people should be allowed to try to succeed at whatever they set their sights upon.  Amanda focuses her energy on making sure her son knows she loves him-- knows that she thinks he's brilliant-- knows that she thinks he can master whatever skills he wants to acquire.

Amanda knows she succeeds.  Spock knows she loves him, and though he's never said the words back, it's clear to her all the same-- it's in the unspoken expressions in his eyes, the quiet way he will come work on his studies in her rooms while she works at her own correspondence as an Ambassador's wife, the way he listens and asks questions about the literatures she reads and translates from the cultures they come into contact with.  Spock asks her to teach him the languages she knows and the request is a gift-- his brilliance and shy pride when she praises how quickly he learns is a gift a thousand times over. 

Amanda gives Spock all her love and attention and reassurance and oh, it's a heartbreaking gift when she learns that he's enlisted in Starfleet-- not (just, and logically so) because it is an excellent educational institution that will provide him with a different perspective on the things still to be learned in this universe, but (also, and most illogically, and therefore most wonderfully so) because his acceptance at the Vulcan Science Academy was given as such a backhanded compliment that Spock felt the backhand and disregarded what the so-polite (Vulcans are proud that they are polite, an illogical combination they'll never acknowledge) councillors thought was a compliment-- that he succeeded in spite of his half-human parentage.

When she finds this out-- when Sarek tries to explain, full of indignation (and she does point out that he's indignant, which makes him even more so and she _laughs_ aloud at the irony), about how _rude_ Spock was to the councillors, well, there, that's it.  (And the discussion about Sarek letting the other councillors talk about her like that in public is going to come, later, because that right there is so very Ambassadorial, isn't it?)  Call it a mother's love, call it the accumulated anger of years' worth of insults, call it the right time and the right place, but when Spock returns to the house to tell her calmly (because he's made up his mind and has vented his annoyance through his rejection of the academy's condescension) that he's going to Starfleet and then Sarek and two of the Academy members (including T'Prat, and boy is she _ever_ a prat, Amanda enjoys the British pun, purely internally because it would take too long to explain to the Vulcans) arrive not long afterward to demand that Spock explain himself, well, Amanda goes _off_.

"Gentlepersons," she says, standing in the doorway that leads to Spock's room, barring their pointy-eared progress. (A regrettable and fallacious characterization, she acknowledges, and therefore keeps that thought to herself.)  "Might I point out that your insistence upon demanding an explanation from Spock at this very moment is emotionally driven?  You are having an extremely strong and emotional response to Spock's determination to decline the Academy's acceptance, something that would indicate that you are not in a state to hear any further reasons my son might offer?"

There's a long moment's silence.  (Oh, this is going to be fun.  Vulcan is nothing if not staid most of the time and entertainment like this, even so serious, comes along less than every few years.)

"Further," Amanda states, crossing her arms.  "As I understand it, you believe it illogical for Spock to have declined a place at the Academy, and to have determined on enlisting at Starfleet, is that not correct?"

Sarek nods. 

"Why is it illogical?"

More silence before T'Prat speaks indignantly.  "No one has ever declined a place at the Vulcan Science Academy."

(Oh, this is going to be more fun than a barrel of monkeys, another expression Amanda will keep to herself, not wanting to get sidetracked.)  "Ah, the force of custom.  Not a source of a deductive fallacy at all."

The room is so quiet that the afternoon winds on the plain a half-mile below are audible.

"His decision was based on emotion, not on any logical reason."  Sarek's indignation isn't yet waning. 

"And you are insulted.  All of you.  An emotional response.  Which has caused you all to descend upon my house without invitation to interrupt my regular period of study in order to demand-- an emotional action-- some explanation or apology from my son."   
  
Smiling (a very human reaction, Amanda laughs to herself) with anger, Amanda carries the argument forward.

"Let us return to first principles, gentlepersons."  Her invocation of the traditional phrases beginning a lesson in logic shocks them all (hah, another emotion, she'll have to diary all of this later, it may well be the most emotional day in Vulcan's history, all from one and a half humans) and they actually stare at her.

"Vulcan is a member of Starfleet, an organization of mutual aid among sentient races deemed to have technologically and socially advanced cultures capable of self-governance and appreciation of the rights of all persons to determine their interests so long as others come to no harm?"

Seren (who to his credit is younger and has been watching Amanda with interest even if his nostrils are flaring) agrees.  "Acknowledged."

"And Earth, a planet with an advanced culture, is a co-founding member of Starfleet, along with Vulcan?"

She glares hard at Sarek and her husband glares back a long moment before answering as Ambassador.  "Acknowledged."

"Starfleet Academy-- whose faculty is 80% human-- is an educational institution of preeminent scientific and cultural reputation dedicated, among other things, to the spread of knowledge, the protection of member species' rights of self-governance, and the advancement of cultural understanding among Federation members?"

T'Prat avoids her direct look and she can't help it, Amanda _knows_ it was either T'Prat or her husband that made the crack about Spock's half-human heritage holding him back.  "T'Prat, you are not paying attention," she states.  "Is Starfleet Academy respected or not?"

"It is," she bites out angrily.  ( _Hah_ , Amanda thinks to herself when T'Prat flushes green.)

"You are angry," she says quietly, then.  "All of you.  Think, then, about such hypocrisy.  Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combination indeed-- you have so clearly exemplified it today, making it clear that humans _must_ be inferior, _must_ of course be incapable of intellectual rigor, _must_ of course be less accomplished than anyone Vulcan.  It _of course_ makes sense for my son to agree that there is _only_ one educational institution or method that is capable of providing access to learning, and that the institution must of course and exclusively be the Vulcan Science Academy.  Humans are so clearly inferior that attack and falsehood fallacies never play into the analysis of today's events, because clearly humans are all uninformed apes incapable of space flight without the Vulcan's majestical aid."

Amanda stops and looks at each of them, Seren the only one meeting her eyes for more than a few seconds. (At least Amanda's going to have someone to drink tea with, it seems.)   
  
"Your unwillingness to make a verbal response or provide me with prolonged eye contact indicates shame, anger, or doubt-- negative emotions, all.  If your position was entirely logical, there would be no reason for such a collection of responses."

Seren makes the traditional bow of acknowledgment.  "Gentlewoman," he says, "I acknowledge your logic and offer my apologies for disturbing your home and your studies.  I shall retire."

With a pointed not-glance at Sarek and T'Prat, Seren departs, and Amanda feels comfortable raising her victory flag.  With a tight smile at the remaining and still indignant Vulcans, (including her husband, who she is _so_ going to let have it _all over again_ when T'Prat goes home) Amanda says "there is chamomile tea in the kitchen if you feel in need of its calmative properties," and heads down to Spock's room.

Her son's door is surprisingly open, and he is sitting in a chair in the window reading, a calm expression on his face. 

"I suppose you heard some of that," she says with a smile, leaning lightly against the curve of the window frame.

Spock nods serenely.  "Very logical-- I would have made many of the same points had you determined that it was appropriate for me to speak with the Elders myself."

Amanda feels a real smile on her face as Spock praises her logic.  "I am sure you would have done a marvelous job, Spock, and illuminated their fallacies far more strikingly, since I will admit it has been some time since I engaged in a formal debate.  I must confess that I intervened for a purely emotional reason."

Spock raises one intrigued eyebrow.  She's always been frank with her son about her emotional motivations-- his Vulcan makeup will always cause him some inner conflict about whether to give in to emotion or not, and she wants to explain her reasons so Spock has some information to go on, whether or not it's intellectually sound.  To the extent that he loves her, he always listens, and he still loves her because he's still listening, clearly waiting for her to begin. 

"On Earth, there's a vernacular concept of insult that is described by two words designed to provoke-- ' _Your mama_.'  The concept proceeds from any number of possible fallacies, but in all contexts, the purpose is to provoke a reaction by drawing on the parent-child dynamic.  It's a strong dynamic, and no matter how often the provocation arises, it can be hard not to respond viscerally in each new instance."

Spock is endlessly curious about Earth vernacular, and it's always fun to explain it to him.  All he has to do is state why he does not understand a particular expression, and Amanda is game-- they've spent _hours_ free-wheeling their way through the wonders of English-language expressions and today is no different.  " _Your mama_ " yields to a discussion of other expressions involving mothers and parents and it's almost an hour later when Spock says with that strong quirk at his mouth and a glint in his eye that is for him a satisfied smile, " _Then I shall proudly count myself a mama's boy, Mother_."  He forbears a hug and a kiss with a genuine half-smile.

When she emerges from Spock's room and returns to the main part of the house, Sarek is ensconced in his study, the door mostly closed.  As she peeks through the sliver, she can see he is meditating though it is only mid-afternoon.  He only does this when he's profoundly disturbed by a flaw in his logic, and Amanda smiles to herself as she proceeds to make herself a cup of tea.  (She is an Ambassador's wife, and she resists the urge to push the door open, crow " _Your mama!_ " at Sarek, then pump her fist.  It would be rude under any cultural construct.  She does, however, write it all down in her diary.  It's not gloating if she's writing it down-- she is merely keeping a record for history.  She smiles at the rationalization, and writes it down anyway.  It's not every day a human beats three esteemed Vulcans at their own game.)  



End file.
